INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Spring of Pearls took off with such fury in a turf sprint on June 18 that she looked more like a Quarter Horse than a Thoroughbred. She paid the price in the final furlong, fading to lose by 4 1/4 lengths.

If jockey Isaias Enriquez can throttle that speed even a little, Spring of Pearls could carry that speed throughout Friday's $53,000 Impressive Style Stakes at Hollywood Park.

The race is run over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf and is restricted to 3-year-old fillies that have not won a stakes. There are six fillies entered; four have started in stakes.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Irish trainer David Wachman walked off the Hollywood Park turf course on Wednesday morning wearing a sizable grin.

"It's firm," he said.

That will not come as a surprise to California racing fans, but to Wachman it confirmed what he needed to know.

For Sunday's $750,000 American Oaks, his filly Luas Line will have the surface that Wachman insists she needs.

"I think she's crying out for it," he said. "She wants fast ground."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Elliott Walden often told the story that as a young boy growing up around horses in central Kentucky, his lifetime aspiration was to be a trainer. "It was all I cared about," he said Wednesday.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Fastidia will seek to break a case of seconditis on Friday when she heads a field of eight entered in the $46,000 featured entry-level allowance race scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on Belmont Park's inner turf course.

ELMONT, N.Y. - On second thought, maybe the Dwyer is the better spot for Roman Ruler's return to the races.

Trainer Bob Baffert scratched Roman Ruler from a seven-furlong allowance race on Wednesday at Belmont Park and is now pointing the 3-year-old to Monday's Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes here. Roman Ruler, a multiple graded stakes winner at 2, has battled foot problems most of the year, limiting him to one start at 3, a last-place finish in the Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita on March 19.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Whimsy could go from being an unraced maiden to a graded stakes winner in slightly more than five months, but first she must get past likely favorite Cee's Irish and four other 3-year-old fillies in Friday's Grade 3, $125,000 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows.

Trained by Michael Stidham, Whimsy didn't begin her career until Jan. 29, when she scored an easy 9 3/4-length victory over maiden special weight company at Sam Houston. She followed that effort with two straight allowance victories, one at Fair Grounds and the other at Keeneland.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Trainer Doug O'Neill has picked spots carefully for Thor's Echo, and he could reap a large reward here in Friday night's $250,000 Iowa Derby.

The 1 1/16-mile derby is a co-feature on the card, along with the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks. Friday is the start of the four-day Iowa Festival of Racing, which features two stakes per day through Monday and purses totaling more that $1.1 million. Saturday's $300,000 Cornhusker Breeders' Cup Handicap is the highlight of the Festival. The 1 1/8-mile race has been upgraded to a Grade 2 this year.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Dallas Stewart spent several seasons at Monmouth Park as an assistant to D. Wayne Lukas and is looking forward to a return visit to the Jersey Shore this weekend.

Stewart will bring Silverfoot to the Grade 1, $750,000 United Nations Stakes on Saturday.

The U.N., the premier turf race in New Jersey, tops Monmouth's trio of graded stakes over the holiday weekend.

MIAMI - Two of the fastest fillies in the country, Madcap Escapade and Happy Ticket, are expected to converge on south Florida next weekend and meet for the first time in Calder's $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap.

The Grade 2 Princess Rooney is shaping up as possibly the best of eight stakes races on a $1.9 million Summit of Speed program that will also feature the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap, along with the appearance of the undefeated 3-year-old sensation Lost in the Fog in the $300,000 Carry Back Stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Niigon and A Bit O'Gold, the first two finishers in the 2004 Queen's Plate, will renew their rivalry at the Plate distance of 1 1/4 miles Friday at Woodbine in the Grade 3, $215,800 Dominion Day Handicap.

The supporting feature on the 10-race Canada Day card is the $158,550 Achievement Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for Ontario-foaled 3-year-olds.